Graham Jaehnig/Daily Mining Gazette Some of the grave markers in the Calumet Township’s Hecla Cemetery are severely damaged. Cemetery volunteer Ruth Gleckler gathered up what pieces of this stone she could find and arranged them in this wooden frame. The marker, she says, is for that of a woman named Ellen Harrington.

CALUMET TOWNSHIP — Alojz Turk was a native of Slovenia and a member of the St. Joseph’s Society. He was 25 years old on July 22, 1897, and working as a trammer on the 36th level, north of the No. 7 Shaft of the Hecla Branch of the Calumet and Hecla Mining Company when a fall of rock fell on him. He was killed instantly.

Listed in the annual report of the Houghton County Mine Inspector, Turk’s first name was listed as Louis. He is one of some 2,000 buried in the Hecla Cemetery, on Cemetery Street, near the Sacred Heart Church.

The cemetery, now abandoned, has become overgrown. Many of the head stones have been vandalized, broken, and/or knocked over. In some instances, they were literally bulldozed. A number of years ago, it became the mission of Ruth Gleckler and a number of dedicated volunteers to clean up the grounds, clear the brush away from head stones and monuments, and clear walking paths through the grounds. The reason for that, she said, is to honor and preserve the memories of those who are buried there.

Mary Clarisse Sibilsky, who was one year old when she passed away, is also buried in the Hecla Cemetery. Her father, Louis, buried in the Lake View Cemetery, was the son of Eagle River pioneer Anton Sibilsky, who is buried in the cemetery near Eagle River.

The origins of the cemetery, said Gleckler, are veiled in the myths of history. While most website searches assert that the cemetery was established in 1880, that is not quite accurate.

“It was a Hecla Mining Company cemetery,” she said, adding that when the Hecla company merged with the Calumet Mining Company in 1871, it became the Calumet and Hecla Mining Company’s cemetery..

“Then, sometime around 1880, the Sacred Heart Catholic Parish rented some eight or nine plots. That evolved into them eventually kind of taking some responsiblity for this cemetery and designating it a Catholic cemetery,” Gleckler said, adding that the Schoolcraft, north of Calumet, became the Protestant cemetery.

For many years, she said, Sacred Heart Parish maintained the grounds. When the Lakeview Cemetery opened, not only did people start to bury their loved ones there, but because the Hecla grounds were not well-maintained, many moved deceased loved ones from the Hecla Cemetery to the Lakeview.

Private Joseph Heimes, of Co. D, 107th Engineers, for example, was buried in the Hecla Cemetery in 1895, after he was struck and killed by a falling tree.

“At that time, there was a flag pole, a bench, they buried him with honors,” Gleckler said, “the Michigan National Guard kept everything very nice.”

Sometime in 1985 or 1995, she added, they could no longer protect his grave at the Hecla, so they relocated him, and his monumet, to the Lakeview Cemetery.

There are other military veterans still interred in Hecla Cemetery. One, a Private Sullivan, lays in the cemetery, and a veteran of the Civil War who had served in the 37th Mass. Vol. Infantry Regiment said Gleckler. “And those graves were also honored on Decoration Day, which is now Memorial Day.”

While estimates place the number of burials at the Hecla Cemetery at 2,000, Gleckler said she and her volunteers have been able to document 800.

While some graves were relocated to the Lakevies Cemetery, she said, in other instances the remains were left in the Hecla Cemetery but the monuments were moved.

“And, the records seem to have disappeared,” Gleckler said. “People say they were destroyed when the Sacred Heart Church burned decades ago, but I don’t think so.”

Gleckler said she disagrees with that because former funeral director John Ryan, who since passed away, gave the maps and documents he had to the church, after the fire. And at this time, she said, the church office continues to deny Gleckler and her volunteers access to any of the cemetery records or documents.

That hasn’t deterred fellow volunteer, Lynette Webber, from conducting research into the burials.

Webber said that last fall, after the leaves had fallen, she searched for grave markers to gather more names. She then conducted online searches on findagrave.com. She also has created entries for the names on markers not found on the website.

“Family members can access to them,” said Webber,” and hopefully that will gain a little more enthusiasm for others to volunteer for the preservation of the cemetery here.”

While searching, she said, she encountered a broken stone that suggested it may have been a military marker. She discovered that by shining a light on it at a certain angle, she could read 37th Mass. Inf. Through extensive research, she was able to able to determine that the marker belonged to Alfred “Fred” Gabrieault dit LaPine. The discovery led to more confusion, because Webber’s research, which involved VA monuments burial records and LaPine’s service in the 37th Mass Infantry regimental history. The confusion comes from an 1871 census placing him in Montreal, Canada, living with his father and family.

Gleckler said trying to sort out burial plots, markers and locations is exceedingly diffult, but her group of volunteers remains dedicated to converting the cemetery into a walking park.

“It’s not going to look clear-cut like a cemetery, because in 1958, they brought a bulldozer in to clean. so everything, unless it’s big, is pretty much not where it originally was.”

That explains why the Schoolcraft is a beautiful cemetery, with beautiful monuments, said Gleckler, and they are still above ground.